Parents Right to Know

Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires all LEAs to notify parents of all children in all Title I schools that they have the right to request and receive timely information on the professional qualifications of their children’s classroom teachers. This notice must be sent at the start of each school year. The notice does not itself contain the teacher information. It simply tells parents the types of information they may request.

At a minimum, if a parent requests it, LEA/school must report:

Whether the teacher has met state qualifying and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher is teaching;

Whether the teacher is teacher under emergency or other provisional status through which state qualifications or licensing criteria have been waived;

The baccalaureate degree major of the teacher and any other graduate certification or degree held by the teacher, including the field of discipline of the certification or degree; and

Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessional and, if so, their qualifications.

In addition, if a child is assigned, or taught by a teacher who is not “highly qualified” for four or more consecutive weeks, the parents must receive timely notice.

These and other communications with parents must be in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practical, in a language the parents can understand. According to ED guidance, if there is no other way to provide information, it should be provided in oral translation.